Applied Research Sport Experiences, Milestones, and Educational Activities Associated With High-Performance Coaches' Development

What experiences are needed to become a high-performance coach? The present study addressed this question through structured retrospective quantitative interviews with 10 team- and 9 individual-sport coaches at the Canadian interuniversity-sport level. Minimum amounts of certain experiences were deemed necessary but not sufficient to become a high-performance coach (e.g., playing the sport they now coach and interaction with a mentor coach for all coaches, leadership opportunities as athletes for team-sport coaches only). Although coaches reported varying amounts of these necessary experiences, general stages of high-performance coach development were traced. Findings serve to identify and support potential high-performance coaches and increase the effectiveness of formal coaching-education programs.

Influences and advice of theatrical consumption. A study about the effect of the theatre critics and other instances of evaluation in the habits of theatre attendance

This article analyses the influence that different criticism stages of proceedings exert in the habits of theatre attendance. The study is based on the survey carried out specifically for this research in which 210 people, who attended a theatrical representation, were interviewed in three different theatres in the city of Valencia. The study has revealed the mouth to mouth importance in the decision of attending the theatre and its stronger influence on the audiences who less frequently go to theatrical representations. The results obtained have also made clear the existence of a narrow relation between the advice effect of the theatre critics and the patterns of attendance to the theatre, just like its bigger influence between theatres with commercial orientation and those which are addressed to the broad audiences.

El oráculo griego en la época de la producibilidad escrita: la crisis de la autoridad mántica en "Aves" (960-996) de Aristófanes

Este artículo se propone analizar la escena del cresmólogo intruso en Aves, revalorizando la comedia aristofánica como fuente de conocimiento histórico. Este análisis se centra en la práctica oracular como una técnica de producción escrita vinculada a la autoridad religiosa. De esta manera, se exploran dos campos de estudios, como la comedia antigua y la adivinación griega, cuyo vínculo no ha sido explorado en profundidad. Para dar cuenta del momento crítico de la institución oracular durante la Guerra del Peloponeso, se reconstruyen perspectivas sobre dicho fenómeno en otras fuentes como Tucídides o Demóstenes. Esto no solo ofrece una mirada «cómica» sobre la adivinación, sino que también permite comprender la práctica oracular como técnica y, en consecuencia, qué elementos de su funcionamiento podían ser manipulados.

"Per aurem intrat Christus in Mariam". Aproximación iconográfica a la "conceptio per aurem" en la pintura italiana del Trecento desde fuentes patrísticas y teológicas

La tesis mariológica de la conceptio per aurem, según la cual la Virgen María habría concebido a Jesucristo por el oído en el momento de escuchar del ángel el mensaje celestial anunciándole que, sin perder su virginidad, sería madre del Hijo de Dios encarnado, ha merecido hasta ahora muy pocos estudios académicos rigurosamente fundados en fuentes primarias. De hecho, en la literatura especializada son muy escasas las referencias a tal teoría y, cuando algún estudioso la evoca, casi siempre se contenta con aludir a ella, sin aportar pruebas documentales. Sin embargo, tal como lo revelan las nueve pinturas italianas aquí analizadas, esa teoría fue ilustrada mediante sutiles metáforas visuales en muchas obras pictóricas medievales, las cuales se inspiraron en una sólida tradición literaria. Además una pléyade de Padres de la Iglesia y teólogos medievales testimonia, mediante afirmaciones explícitas, que semejante teoría gozó de notable aceptación entre los maestros del pensamiento cristiano. Basándose en numerosos textos patrísticos y teológicos, este artículo intenta dos objetivos esenciales: exponer, ante todo, las distintas formulaciones teóricas propuestas por esos pensadores; y además, tratar de poner en luz los significados dogmáticos que subyacen bajo esa sorprendente tesis.

Correlation between anxiety and academic self-concept in interpreter trainees

This paper focuses on two basic issues: the anxiety-generating nature of the interpreting task and the relevance of interpreter trainees’ academic self-concept. The first has already been acknowledged, although not extensively researched, in several papers, and the second has only been mentioned briefly in interpreting literature. This study seeks to examine the relationship between the anxiety and academic self-concept constructs among interpreter trainees. An adapted version of the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986), the Academic Autoconcept Scale (Schmidt, Messoulam & Molina, 2008) and a background information questionnaire were used to collect data. Students’ t-Test analysis results indicated that female students reported experiencing significantly higher levels of anxiety than male students. No significant gender difference in self-concept levels was found. Correlation analysis results suggested, on the one hand, that younger would-be interpreters suffered from higher anxiety levels and students with higher marks tended to have lower anxiety levels; and, on the other hand, that younger students had lower self-concept levels and higher-ability students held higher self-concept levels. In addition, the results revealed that students with higher anxiety levels tended to have lower self-concept levels. Based on these findings, recommendations for interpreting pedagogy are discussed.

Context, Complexity and Contestation: Birmingham’s Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education since the 1970s

The present article offers an historical perspective on the 1975, 1995 and 2007 Birmingham Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education. It draws upon historical evidence uncovered as part of ‘The hidden history of curriculum change in reli- gious education in English schools, 1969–1979’ project, and curriculum history theories, especially David Labaree’s observations about the distance between the ‘rhetorical’ and ‘received’ curricula. We argue that, contrary to the existing his- toriography, curriculum change in religious education (RE) has been evolution- ary not revolutionary. Multiple reasons are posited to explain this, not least among which is the capacity and agency of teachers. Furthermore, we argue that ongoing debates about the nature and purpose of RE, as exemplified in the Birmingham context, reflect the multiple expectations that religious educators and other stakeholders had, and continue to have, of the curriculum subject. These debates contribute to the inertia evident in the implementation of RE cur- riculum reforms. A consciousness of the history of RE enables curriculum con- testations to be contextualised and understood, and, thereby, provides important insights which can be applied to ongoing and future debates and developments.

'Producing the Scene': the Evolution of the Director in British Theatre 1900-50

The role of the director as the individual who harnesses and controls resources to shape the theatrical product to a personal artistic vision, begins to emerge in British theatre in the early years of the twentieth century. What distinguishes the role from that of the actor-manager who had led the profession since the seventeenth century, is that it separates off from the leading actor in performance. The power and authority of the director (or producer as he or she tended to be known initially) is exercised in the pre-performance stage. In the first half of the century there were still old-style actor-managers—Donald Wolfit is a prime example—and many of the new directors had begun their careers as actors and some continued to act their in their own productions. But the perception of the function of the director began to change radically. In part this was linked to the early attempts to create a new model of producing company or ‘repertory’ theatre which required a different set of administrative as well as artistic skills to tackle the challenge of a short-run system of multiple play production. This became especially important in the developing network of regional repertory theatres which were established as autonomous, locally-specific institutions predicated on policies opposed to the dominant commercial ethos. The best-known of the early directors, most notably H.Granville Barker, confined their radical experiments to short-lived metropolitan experiments, or, as in the case of Terence Gray and J.B.Fagan, operated within the influential Oxbridge nexus. Others such as H.K.Ayliff, Herbert Prentice, William Armstrong and William Bridges-Adams remain comparatively obscure because of their long-term ‘provincial’ connections or, as in the case of Nugent Monck and Edy Craig because their creativity was largely channelled through amateur actors. This chapter will explore the evolving role of the director as both a necessary functionary and an artistic innovator within the changing structures of British theatre.

A City's Toys: Theatre in Birmingham 1914-1918

This chapter provides a wide-ranging account of theatre in Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city. As a vital centre for the production of mass armaments and vehicles essential for the war effort, Birmingham was home to a rapidly expanding and socially diverse population. I show how theatres overcame wartime constraints to reflect that diversity with examples drawn from the popular entertainment provided by the city’s music halls, variety and melodrama theatres contrasted with the more decorous touring plays, musicals and spectacular home-grown pantomimes enjoyed at the prestigious Theatre Royal and Prince of Wales. The dogged attempts by the recently-established Birmingham Repertory Theatre to sustain an artistically and intellectually ambitious programme of new and classic drama also reveal a more complex response to the effects of war.

Applications of a Collaborative Open Object Oriented Learning Environment to Electronics, Computing and Mathematics Education

A lightweight Java application suite has been developed and deployed allowing collaborative learning between students and tutors at remote locations. Students can engage in group activities online and also collaborate with tutors. A generic Java framework has been developed and applied to electronics, computing and mathematics education. The applications are respectively: (a) a digital circuit simulator, which allows students to collaborate in building simple or complex electronic circuits; (b) a Java programming environment where the paradigm is behavioural-based robotics, and (c) a differential equation solver useful in modelling of any complex and nonlinear dynamic system. Each student sees a common shared window on which may be added text or graphical objects and which can then be shared online. A built-in chat room supports collaborative dialogue. Students can work either in collaborative groups or else in teams as directed by the tutor. This paper summarises the technical architecture of the system as well as the pedagogical implications of the suite. A report of student evaluation is also presented distilled from use over a period of twelve months. We intend this suite to facilitate learning between groups at one or many institutions and to facilitate international collaboration. We also intend to use the suite as a tool to research the establishment and behaviour of collaborative learning groups. We shall make our software freely available to interested researchers.

Understanding the Patient Experience Through the Power of Film: a Mixed Method Qualitative Research Study

Background For decades film has proved to be a powerful form of communication. Whether produced as entertainment, art or documentary, films have the capacity to inform and move us. Films are a highly attractive teaching instrument and an appropriate teaching method in health education. It is a valuable tool for studying situations most transcendental to human beings such as pain, disease and death. Objectives The objectives were to determine how this helps students engage with their role as health care professionals; to determine how they view the personal experience of illness, disease, disability or death; and to determine how this may impact upon their provision of patient care. Design, Setting and Participants The project was underpinned by the film selection determined by considerate review, intensive scrutiny, contemplation and discourse by the research team. 7 films were selected, ranging from animation; foreign, documentary, biopic and Hollywood drama. Each film was shown discretely, in an acoustic lecture theatre projected onto a large screen to pre-registration student nurses (adult, child and mental health) across each year of study from different cohorts (n = 49). Method A mixed qualitative method approach consisted of audio-recorded 5-minute reactions post film screening; coded questionnaires; and focus group. Findings were drawn from the impact of the films through thematic analysis of data sets and subjective text condensation categorised as: new insights looking through patient eyes; evoking emotion in student nurses; spiritual care; going to the moves to learn about the patient experience; self discovery through films; using films to link theory to practice. Results Deeper learning through film as a powerful medium was identified in meeting the objectives of the study. Integration of film into pre registration curriculum, pedagogy, teaching and learning is recommended. Conclusion The teaching potential of film stems from the visual process linked to human emotion and experience. Its impact has the power to not only help in learning the values that underpin nursing, but also for respecting the patient experience of disease, disability, death and its reality.

Afrofuturism as Applied to Self-Perception: an Experimental Vignette Study

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

'Stepping out' with Gargantua : learning new research practices in the educational theatre of absurdity

Access to new forms, conduct and practices of educational research remain elusive providing researchers stay within the narrow theoretical constructs-the static, single vista ofconventional research models. This dissertation presents the findings of an experimental study that aims to extend the discourse of educational research through a 'performative ethnographic analysis' by using a single-site case study approach. The case study is an analytical parody based on multiple discourse relevant to a 'new' and different approach to educational research so that a more comprehensive and complex process of reading and writing text becomes possible. Throughout this process, a generative methodology and interpretative base are anticipated to provide a metaphoric focus for a critical dialogue. The discourse informing the theoretical and interpretative base of the study include philosophy, science, visual arts, literary theory, critical postructuralist theory and theatre performance. The data are presented as a series of performance narratives in the form of socio-drama, interspersed with critical reflection that enables the researcher, the research participant and reader to become part ofa triadic construct. The findings from this study have major implications for informing contemporary educational research, as they demonstrate that by approaching research in 'new' and different ways, the researcher and the educational community have access to insights that are unavailable within the constraints of conventional models ofresearch.

Towards guidelines for curriculum design and development in English language teacher education in Cambodian higher education institutions

In the current Cambodian higher education sector, there is little regulation of standards in curriculum design of undergraduate degrees in English language teacher education. The researcher, in the course of his professional work in the Curriculum and Policy Office at the Department of Higher Education, has seen evidence that most universities tend to copy their curriculum from one source, the curriculum of the Institute of Foreign Languages, the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Their programs fail to impose any entry standards, accepting students who pass the high school exam without any entrance examination. It is possible for a student to enter university with satisfactory scores in all subjects but English. Therefore, not many graduates are able to fulfil the professional requirements of the roles they are supposed to take. Neau (2010) claims that many Cambodian EFL teachers do not reach a high performance standard due to their low English language proficiency and poor background in teacher education. The main purpose of this study is to establish key guidelines for developing curricula for English language teacher education for all the universities across the country. It examines the content of the Bachelor‘s degree of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (B Ed in TEFL) and Bachelor‘s degree of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BA in TESOL) curricula adopted in Cambodian universities on the basis of criteria proposed in current curriculum research. It also investigates the perspectives of Cambodian EFL teachers on the areas of knowledge and skill they need in order to perform their English teaching duties in Cambodia today. The areas of knowledge and skill offered in the current curricula at Cambodian higher education institutions (HEIs), the framework of the knowledge base for EFL teacher education and general higher education, and the areas of knowledge and skill Cambodian EFL teachers perceive to be important, are compared so as to identify any gaps in the current English language teacher education curricula in the Cambodian HEIs. The existence of gaps show what domains of knowledge and skill need to be included in the English language teacher education curricula at Cambodian HEIs. These domains are those identified by previous curriculum researchers in both general and English language teacher education at tertiary level. Therefore, the present study provides useful insights into the importance of including appropriate content in English language teacher education curricula. Mixed methods are employed in this study. The course syllabi and the descriptions within the curricula in five Cambodian HEIs are analysed qualitatively based on the framework of knowledge and skills for EFL teachers, which is formed by looking at the knowledge base for second language teachers suggested by the methodologists and curriculum specialists whose work is elaborated on the review of literature. A quantitative method is applied to analyse the perspectives of 120 Cambodian EFL teachers on areas of knowledge and skills they should possess. The fieldwork was conducted between June and August, 2014. The analysis reveals that the following areas are included in the curricula at the five universities: communication skills, general knowledge, knowledge of teaching theories, teaching skills, pedagogical reasoning and decision making skills, subject matter knowledge, contextual knowledge, cognitive abilities, and knowledge of social issues. Additionally, research skills are included in three curricula while society and community involvement is in only one. Further, information and communication technology, which is outlined in the Education Strategies Plan (2006-2010), forms part of four curricula while leadership skills form part of two. This study demonstrates ultimately that most domains that are directly and indirectly related to language teaching competence are not sufficiently represented in the current curricula. On the basis of its findings, the study concludes with a set of guidelines that should inform the design and development of TESOL and TEFL curricula in Cambodia.

Analysis of the entrepreneurial profile of students attending higher education in Portugal: the Carland Entrepreneurship Index application

Background The societal changes have created new necessities in terms of health care and of professionals with diverse skills. The institutions of higher education should promote the development of an entrepreneurial profile in students which may boost the exploration of new opportunities. Objectives: To identify the entrepreneurial profile in the students in higher education and its relationship to some personal characteristics and training. Methods Correlational quantitative study, accomplished with 1,604 students from 18 institutions of polytechnic Institutes of Portugal. The collection of data occurred between July and November/2015. The Carland Entrepreneurship Index (CEI) entrepreneurial skills questionnaire was applied, along with the acquisition of socio-demographic variables of the students. Data was analysed with the SPSS 23.0. The study followed the ethical requirements. Results The (CEI) application, allowed us to note that 75.7 % of the students presented an entrepreneurial profile, 20.8 % a Micro entrepreneurial profile and 3.4 % a Macro entrepreneurial. Additionally, we verified that older students (r = 0.193, p < = 0.000), of the male gender (Female = 0.55; Male, M= 0.580 p < 0.000), that had already worked or would like to work for others, showed the greatest entrepreneurial potential (Yes M= 0.60; No 0.54; p < 0.000), along with those who participated in entrepreneurial contents during their training (Did not participate M= 0.53; Participated 0.58; p < 0.000). Conclusions The entrepreneurial profile is related with some social demographic characteristics of the students; however, the educational institutions may have a preponderant role in the development of that profile, which may contribute to a greater contribution in the wellbeing of the populations.